Monday, February 9, 2009

Here we go with the story of Pepper. Bob calls him his wonder horse. I call him a spoiled brat. However he is a great horse that anyone can ride. If you are experienced, he does well, if you are a beginner he takes care of you and if you are a child, he babysits. I have been giving riding lessons on him since he was five. I believe he is about 11. I would have to go look at his title. We adopted him in Burns Oregon when he was about 10 months old. Bob told me to go pick the best in the pen of yearling colts and I did. He wanted a dun but Pepper was the best I saw. It was at a Kigerfest. Pepper is a Riddle Mt. Kiger.

The picture is of Bob working with Rusty off of Pepper. He has been very good at that. He will pony a horse and really work at it. When I was ponying the horse that bucked Bob off last year, Pepper was doing all he could to help me keep ahold of the rope and pull the horse around. It was too much for both of us and that is when Bob went off.

Pepper in his stall. That is not his favorite place to be but he likes the grain he gets. Actually very little grain but its what we mix the supplements in for his eyes. He is going blind. I don't know what it is called but the colored part of his eyes are deteriorating. We kept it at bay for a couple of years but it gained on us this winter. He still sees pretty well. Good enough to trail ride.

This picture is at Valley Mission arena. He is in the rear behind Dixie and Katies horse Abby. We had participated in Mustang Days and after it was over we turned them out to run and roll. They had mostly been in stalls for 2 days and enjoyed the romp. We did have a little trouble catching them. Mustang Days this year is June 27/28. Saturday will be Meet our Mustangs and Sunday will be an open schooling show with special Mustang classes.

Pepper looks longinly over the fence after he watched me put in their grain and hay into the stalls. He thought I was being rude for making him stand there and take pictures when he wanted in to eat. We probably have more pictures of Pepper than of any other of the horses but other than Rosie and Ditto, we have had him the longest.

This is a picture off a our Back Country Horsemen calendar. Ryan our grandson who was 10 at the time rode him for a week in the Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana. They had a really wonderful trip. Ryans job was to take salt to the horses every evening after they were tied on the highline. I stayed home and babysat the farm.

I thought I uploaded a couple of others but they did not seem to come up. One is our daughter riding in the back country last summer on Pepper and the other is Bob riding him bareback and ponying Raven with Dixie ambling behind on their way back from water where we were camped. That place is my favorite place to go camp and ride. It is at Larabee Corrals on Craig Mountain south west of Lewiston. At one place you can see both the Salmon and the Snake Rivers. We are going down to Craig Mt. over Memorial Day weekend this year but we are going to Madden Corral's which is a great place too. So much fun and lots of good trails. We have seen lots of deer and Elk.

Today was grey and it looked like the snow that was predicted but did not fall, yet anyway. I made Valentines for our young grandsons in Arlington. I had to send Tylers W2 to him so sent them all together. I wish Tyler had returned but he is almost 21 and not going to do anything he doesn't want to at this point. I did pack all his stuff up though and he will need to come get it at some point.

I am anxious for the little truck to get a license on it so I am not stuck home. I might not go anywhere but when I can't of course I think of all the places that I would like to go.